Hi team, 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU - £79.95 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 - £34.09 Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail - £140.12 Antec Three Hundred Black Midi Tower Case - £50.59 512MB Sapphire HD 4870, PCI-E 2.0, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP - £166.15 Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L - £54.36 I do not intend to overclock the system. I have not built a system for a while but i'm quite sure I can find a cheaper 4870 but all from scan atm. Slighty older motherboard but is it compatable? do I need a pci-express power connector for the gpu? I assume the psu would cover this but would rather be sure. Any other thoughts on components too? Cheers.
Your motherboard seems a little weak, but you said you wont be overclocking. its "compatible" but I think it would be smarter to spend a little more and get one with p45 chipset and native 1600mghz fsb; if you ever decide to overclock you would be set. Good case, jut be sure to pick up two 120mm fans for front intake.
the 1gb 4870 offers some quite noticeable advantages than the 512mb one in some games, just to let you know. you will also need a hard drive, Operating system and an optical drive. maybe you already have this stuff. (id recommend 54 bit vista home premium if you dont) the PSU has the pci-e power connector on it, so no trouble there.
Thanks for the replies guys. I do have a sata2 disk, os, optical drive already but well noticed Will see what I can stretch too and order away.
Thanks for the replies guys. I do have a sata2 disk, os, optical drive already but well noticed Will see what I can stretch too and order away.
The motherboard is a cracker actually, run one myself and it is superb for the money so I wouldnt worry too much abot that.
A mix of variable room heat and being away hence not being able to support it when I'm away on work. Hence stability > slight performance increase.
Have you considered an Phenom 2 720 AM3 paired with a 780G or 790G motherboard? The Phenom 2 720 is around £15 cheaper than the E8400 and is comparable in terms of performance.
Seconded. And, really, you should at least look into overclocking. Performance freaks can say what they want about extracting every last drop of power at whatever the cost, but the reality is that you set your own limits - speed, temperature, everything. Temperature is apparently your limiting factor, so if you don't want the CPU going over, say, 50C, then just push it as far as it'll go without going over 50C at load. Overclocking doesn't mean you have to end up with a blast furnace. - Diosjenin -
As I got this link in my advice seeking thread I want to share it: 4870 1GB for £164.99 inc VAT @ Overclockers
I have almost that exact system! +1 for a 1GB model of the 4870. Also, the Sapphire Toxic version of it is apparently very good, but a touch more expensive. Also, between the AM3 Phenom II X3 720 + mobo or Intel E8400 + mobo, it really just depends on your preference between AMD or Intel. Personally, I think the X3 720 will last you longer as apps become more many-core dependent, rather than pure GHz.
yeah i'd say it's not getting to the point where multiplying the number of cores with the clock speed is a good measure of the performance you'll get. In terms of overclocking then i'd say that if you keep it to stock voltage and when you either hit your temp limit or hit the limit at that voltage then drop it down about 5-10MHz fsb and you'll happily have a rock stable overclock for the long term. I'm running my e5200 at3.5 24/7 using an akasa 965 and it's not once crashed on me and I have my machine on all the time and doing stuff a lot of the time. Saying all that though, just make sure you get a decent cooler for quiet cool operation and you can always overclock at a later date should you want/need to.
